Comment:“DUBIOUS AND MALICIOUS ALLEGATIONS AGAINST AfriGalaxy Tours By one Boba_Fett (formerly PIERRE YUROVSKI) of ap_chowdhury@yahoo.com”

We have seen the very discouraging message in your Safari Operators.info (before) he sent the very same allegations to TripAdvisor website from one Pierre Yurovski from South Africa informing the public that Afrigalaxy Tours in collaboration with one of the Kilimanjaro Mountain guides – Zawadi have cheated overcharged and offered him a very low class service for him and his wife sometimes in January 2011.

To be specific we have no idea of these allegations until he sent us an e-mail intending to inform the public that he was mishandled by Zawadi and thus we had to pay the consequences.
We tried to explain to him what we know about him through Zawadi and tried to distance ourselves from those allegations but still he sent to you his Kilimanjaro trip view as he did.

From that point of view we would like to write to members of public our statement of defense that the public should know the truth and the bad intention of this person.

He is a big liar and we don’t know his motive. And maybe he is being used by one of our business competitors in order to destroy the good name of Afrigalaxy.

For your kind information we have been in the tour and safari industry since 1996 and this is the ever first time we are being implicated in such a dubious and malicious allegations. We have been offering services worldwide for individuals and groups including Pierre’s country South Africa.

Now we would like to distant ourselves from the allegations for the following good reasons:

1. The alleged Kilimanjaro guide Zawadi Maullah is not blood related with anyone in Afrigalaxy tours. He is one of many freelance mountain guides scattered all over Kilimanjaro Region. He usually offers his service to different tour companies in Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions. This is because even the person who introduced Pierre to Zawadi is called Joe Elliot from California USA. This Joe had met with Zawadi at Arusha based tour company – Duma Explorers.

2. Pierre and Zawadi had been in contact without our knowledge. They had discussed about climbing Kilimanjaro, charges and rest of the many information concerning the climb.

3. On their arrival we had no any information until one day Zawadi came to our office requesting assistance. He asked if we could help him to authorize him to go to Kilimanjaro using our office authorization voucher. As he was guiding the 2 climbers by himself we saw no any offense and offered him the authorization. This is one way of helping our fellow Tanzanians.

4. As he was on the mountain himself and after 3 days he requested for our assistance once again to send car to pick Pierre as he fallen sick. Of course we helped him to pick up Pierre from Marangu gate as good gesture, and took the sick person to nearby hospital for examination and further treatment. He was not serious sick but the doctors advised him to take much liquid. And one of our staff members used to go and see him in his regularly to comfort and see if he needed and assistance.

After Zawadi came back from the mountain it was end of our assistance.

Now, we were very much surprised when we received an e-mail on 26 March 2011 stating that we are the one who offered him bad services and had to publicize our wrong doing. We tried to send him e-mail messages including Zawadi himself but in vain.

What we are saying is that:
a). Boba Fett or Pierre Yurovski is a liar because he keeps changing names
b). He should take away his travel advisory as soon as possible
c). If anyone who would like to get any review about this company, he / she may contact the following persons:
- Danielle Bukovinsky (Australia) – danielle@antipodeans.co.au
- Toni Freudig (German) – toni@freudig.de
- Gerald Stelzig (Austria) – ct.stelzig@gmail.com

Lastly, our wonderful medium sized tour reputable company and is fully owned by indigenous Tanzanians and is not here to harm anyone.

For any of the Tanzania safari inquiry or query please contact us:
Wema Pagali
Executive Director

2011-03-26 23:31:23 - Boba_Fett

Date:

December 2010

Duration:

6 days

Parks visited:

Mt. Kilimanjaro Climb

Guide Name:

Zawadi

Service:

Organisation:

Guide Qualification:

Guide Friendliness:

Vehicle:

Accomodation:

Food:

Ecological Awareness:

Expectations met:

Value for Money:

Comment:Speaking from personal experience, please DO NOT use this company AfriGalaxy Tours!!!

http://www.afrigalaxytours.co.tz

My friend had a horrible experience with their extortionate charges and referred me to the mountain guide that he had directly, a guide named Zawadi.

Zawadi seemed to be a knowledgeable guide, but it turned out that he's no more than a porter, something that he worked as for 12 years before, and was working for his brother, owner of AfriGalaxy, the whole time.

We climbed with AfriGalaxy in December 2010-January 2011

Here is a list of problems with their service:

1. The food and/or the cooks are contaminated. I personally got food poisoning (a bacterial infection) from the cooks who either a) didn't wash/cook the food well enough b) didn't wash their hands thoroughly when touching the food. I was 3/4 up the mountain when this happened and had to descend with uncontrollable bowl movements. Pretty awful.

2. No apology for the food poisoning. Zawadi not only did not apologize, but refused to accept that I had been poisoned from the food. This food poisoning hypothesis was verified by the local health clinic in Moshi, Jaffrey Charitable Services the next day. Zawadi is as stubborn as a mule and has no business interfacing with customers.

3. Zawadi and porters incessant talking on the trail. My wife continued up the mountain, and as I had experienced, Zawadi and the porters killed the serenity of the climb with their incessant talking in Tanzanian Swahili. Many times, it was clear that they were talking about their paying customers--my wife and I.

4. Pushing clients beyond their limits to get credit for a summit. My wife decided to push on as far as she could go. Considering that it was not only her first climb of Kili, it was also her first multi-day hike, which Zawadi was aware of, it was not expected that she summit on her first attempt, and we did not expect her to.

Zawadi insisted to push my wife beyond her limits. 1.5 hrs from the summit, even after repeated declarations from my wife that she was on the verge of being very sick, Zawadi insisted that she go on "for me". He didn't care if she lived or died, as long as Zawadi got credit for her going to the summit. He didn't care if she came down in a bodybag, a stretcher, whatever.

5. Zawadi insistence on giving the team tips. We made sure to give the porters (even the cooks) tips, but did not give any to Zawadi. In an effort to appeal to my wife's emotional side (who was fed up with him after the summit incident), he tried to manipulate her into giving her tips by taking her to his family home after she descended into Moshi.

All in all, I am spreading the word around the Internet around this company and the brothers that have no business being in business.

Be careful, there are many other companies who extort in the same way as AfriGalaxy. Some of those hikers we met on our climb had similar experiences, and paid much, much more than we did.

Next time, I will insist on A) pack my own food B) carrying my own bag C) will not pay a tour company. You can ping me off-line for a number of the direct mobile numbers of about 50 guides who work independently.